File photo (image credit - CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

RIH FLOOD

Flood remediation work underway at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops

Dec 29, 2022 | 3:57 PM

KAMLOOPS — Royal Inland Hospital’s (RIH) medical imaging department has experienced extensive flooding due to burst water lines over the holidays. Interior Health says the flooding has resulted in the temporary closure of one CT scanner, two x-ray rooms, and a radiography suite at RIH.

Director of Imaging for the Cariboo-Thompson region of Interior Health Kim Perris, confirmed that at this time remediation crews are in the hospital working on the damaged rooms.

As crews are still working, the hospital has not been able to confirm if the CT scanner was damaged in the flood.

“The C1 CT scanner, where the leak was, there was water on top of the machine so we will have to have that of course checked over to make sure there is no damage to it. At this point we really don’t know, we are hoping to find that out next week. (There are) a lot of unanswered questions at this point,” said Perris.

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Should the closure of the imagining rooms be prolonged, Interior Health is investigating the possibility of bringing in portable scanners to help meet demand.

At this point, the cost of the damage hasn’t been determined. An update on the situation is expected early next week.

RIH is utilizing the remaining scanners at the hospital for emergency patients, asking doctors in the community to refer non-emergency imagery to other clinics in Kamloops.

“So, our CT patients are still being done but it is at a reduced capacity with only one scanner in use. And some select procedures that we would have done in the fluoroscopy suite may need to be postponed but we are doing the majority of them in our other fluoroscopy suite. Of course, our priority is to make sure that anybody needing urgent medical imaging receives it in a timely manner,” added Perris.